François Hollande
French President François Hollande has pledged that his
administration will assist the Multinational Joint Task Force
(MJTF) with intelligence gathering and equipment to check the
activities of insurgents in Nigeria and beyond.
Hollande announced this on Monday at the Elysee Palace in Paris
after a closed door bilateral meeting with President Muhammadu
Buhari, who is on a three-day official visit to France.
The French President, who was addressing a joint news
conference, said that his government was concerned about the
increasing spate of insecurity in Nigeria and the entire West Africa
sub-region.
According to him, his administration is ready to render support
and assistance to Nigeria to enable the country to tackle
insurgency and all forms of extremism in the country.
He said himself and President Buhari discussed new strategies of
partnership that would enable Nigeria and its neighboring
countries of Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Benin Republic, through
the joint action of the MJTF, to fight the insurgency and restore
peace.
President Hollande explained that as an intervention approach to
assist in the fight against terrorism, France last year, hosted a
Regional Summit on Security in Paris, which brought together the
neighboring countries to chart the way forward.
“We provide all of the support to the countries in the region which
are affected by this cult and in Nigeria, we want to provide support
and solidarity,” he added.
He thanked President Buhari for his recent actions such as the
movement of the military command centre to Maiduguri, which he
said, had helped tremendously in weakening the insurgents.
According to Hollande, France has concluded arrangements to
invest a total of 130million euro in the development of
infrastructure in Nigeria for rebuilding of roads, provision of
electricity and water supply.
He noted that in spite of the fall in the price of crude oil in the
international market, which had affected Nigerian expected
revenue, the country’s economy still remained strong.
“The Nigerian economy remains strong so, France wants to be
doing business in the country,” he said
Hollande said that France intended to increase the visibility of its
investors more in Nigeria.
In his remarks, President Buhari thanked the French president for
his administration’s interest to assist Nigeria.
He expressed the readiness of his administration to partner with
France for the overall development of both countries.
President Buhari noted that with commitment from France,
Nigeria’s next shopping list regarding support would move to
other members of the G7.
“We have to depend on France and the other G7 countries for
support to fight piracy,” he said.
“Our next shopping list is going to G7 in terms of intelligence and
training.
“Another problem is the problem in the Gulf of Guinea, from
Senegal to Angola; that area is endowed with resources like
petroleum and other minerals but surrounded by piracy and theft.
“We are going to depend on France and G7 countries to flush
these criminals out of the region.”
On Nigeria’s problems, President Buhari lamented that more than
67 per cent of youths, most of them under their youthful age, were
unemployed.
“We are finding best way in agriculture and mining to address this
challenge before sophisticated infrastructure and security are
provided.
“We want to make sure we feed ourselves and provide security
before other things are also tackled.
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